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Michael's journey begins in Gibraltar, and with a 21-gun salute in honour of the Queen's birthday ringing in his ears, Michael crosses the Straits to Tangier in Morocco. It is only after pausing in Fez and Marrakech, and scaling the High Atlas, that Michael's "Line in the Sand" enters real desert. This is hard, hot country, controlled by the Polisario Front who have been in confrontation with the Moroccans for over 25 years. But this inhospitable land is softened by the warmth shown by the Sahawari people, who guide Michael south to the Mauritanian border. Here he climbs aboard the "longest train in the world", breaking his journey at Chinguetti. There is just time for Michael to defeat the local champion at a game of desert draughts, played with stalks and camel droppings, before he gets literally taken over by the 24th Paris-Dakar Rally and its sole surviving British entrant, Dave Hammond from Cirencester.

Michael travels through Senegal, and down the Niger River toward Timbuktu.

Michael reaches Timbuktu, then heads east to Wodaabe, and onwards to Algeria.